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GM Cheat Sheet
Overview Welcome to the GM Cheat Sheet! This page exists to provide you with helpful tools and recommendations pertaining to both the game and its players. Below you will find a wishlist and a space to toy around with those half-formed ideas until they become real adventures! One of the difficulties of GMing is appealing to your audience. Space is provided here for each player to list his or her own personal preferences, as well as specific character hooks. When you're not sure what to include, you can always browse this list for suggestions. Player Interests By Genre On a scale of 0-10, with 0 being RAEG and HAET, 5 being neutral, and 10 being LOEV and HNNG. Parody is a somewhat nebulous genre; note that a game parodying games or media types counts. Please rate on the genre itself, as the GM can note many likes and dislikes via the remainder of this sheet. Examples of the parody genre might include: (and note that there are many source-specific parodies possible): Video: Musical, Sit Com, Medical Drama, Courtroom TV Literature: Gothic Novel, Murder Mystery, Trashy Romance Games: Resident Evil, Street Fighter, Katamari Damacy Player Goals and Interests Please use the space below to enter your goals and interests. Be sure to include both what you like and what you don't like, and any themes, motifs, or situations that appeal to you overall. Since there aren't any safewords during session, this is a good spot to mention what kills your game boner. Jenna Angst/drama that leads to character development. References to the characters' backstories. Situations where the characters must make hard/sadistic choices. "Grey" villains motivated by recognizable human factors - in fact, in general a strong emphasis on psychological factors, both among the party and in the villains. Action/combat. Situations where all is not what it seems, and ideally where the PCs may actually have several different paths to choose between. Absolutely minimal exploration in the sense of 'walking around maps' - the less of THAT the better. I don't really enjoy exploration in any sense, but having to explore huge and complex maps is -really- a turn-off for me. I like themes of redemption, prophecy (when done right!), patterns (in characters or events), complex moral dilemmas, and religion. On a more minor note, I enjoy glamorous parties (especially ones involving fancy dress and interrupted by killing), witty situations, situations where the characters are Outside of Their Comfort Zones, and anything that makes us be serious out of sincere worry for our lives. Lao Textext. Well, I don't think there's any particular themetic setting I dislike, really. Some I suppose I'm not as interested in as others, but as long as they all take their turns, I'm fine with whatever. (Too much of one thing, and it loses its appeal.) I'm really rather indifferent in that. There's just some I won't be as useful in as others. Combat's almost always fun, so long as we're not getting too caught up on little details, and can ignore the 1 second per round bit for banter (saying not even half a sentance per action would really ruin things.) Imagine it flowing more cinematically, with varying length pauses accordingly, and it works nicer, I suppose. Backstory links are always fun as well, no matter the genre they fall into, if just because it's char development, and that's always a must in some fashion or another. Though I like being able to actively upgrade/etc a char, I'm usually lazy on point spending, so I'm not as focused on that sort of thing. Maybe more to be said later. Laura My sweet spots are plot development, character development, and setting exploration, not necessarily in that order. I like being forced to team up with unusual allies or enemies for survival purposes, or delicious smackdown against a third foe. I actually enjoy being disadvantaged by injury or circumstance when it leads to having to make tactical plans or shortcuts, as long as those puzzles aren't too challenging. Detailed settings and rounded NPCs, especially interesting or realistic villains, really make RP enjoyable for me. I love and agonize over making sacrifices. Tense sessions where everything goes to hell usually excite me. I rarely object to the Rule of Drama. I like references or first-hand encounters to PCs' backstories. I dislike more than an hour of combat. Flat NPCs and villains, or ridiculously overpowered monsters, make RP dull and tedious for me. My RP nightmares involve PCs getting killed (anyone's), or arguments (IC or OOC) derailing sessions; sessions made entirely of combat frustrate me. If the session can be summed up in a short sentence, it is probably not as fast-paced or tense as I would like it. I prefer subtle and psychological horror to gore. My favorite themes and motifs include atonement, discovery/exploration, intimacy out of necessity, and feelings of the PCs fighting against the world (literally or figuratively) for survival. Mike MIKE TEXT AWESOME Ven Combat's definitely fun - I like "fancy" scenes and chances to show off. This makes good SETTINGS for combat important, in my opinion. An empty room is a boring battlefield. I also tend to like developing characters' abilities - gaining new skills and powers and the like. "Character upgrade" type finds are often fun, with proper intermittency. One of the surest ways to keep me engaged is presenting questions to answer and mysteries to solve. This doesn't mean the plot has to be "a mystery" in the classic sense, but rather, that it should pose puzzling or curiosity-evoking quandaries to resolve. Slow pacing sometimes gets under my skin. Side-sessions for pure chat and socialization are a seperate matter, but "main" sessions really need to move the plot along. In relation to the above blurb about mysteries, surpluses of unanswered questions can rapidly transition from haunting and troubling to just annoying. It's a fine line. I'm also intensely forgetful, which can make some plot facets frustrating if I don't feel like something has been pointed out clearly enough. I also love caves. Character Hooks Here is a list of primary interests and goals for each character. If you have an idea, you may want to discuss it with the player first. Note that some hooks may fall in a specific GM's purview (enclosed in parentheses); these aren't impossible hooks for others to use, but consult the relevant GM for permission before you make any plans. Daishar Felix Weird or time-travel technology, 1920s-30s time period, Mafia culture, Fake (Ven), character analogues ("another me, another you"), questions or complications of identity. Freddy (Buddy) Espionage/spy missions, covert operations, encounters with interesting new life-forms, complications stemming from monstrosity Hikaru Seeking/discovering magical items, finding schematics and/or supplies for new equipment, quests of spiritual fulfillment/exploration Marle Main Interest: Kill (her) God (Maybe left to Ven, not really sure here, tbh). Other stuff: Hunting celestial beings - primarily from her own world. Other gun slingers. Things bigger and more powerful then her. Uwe Religion, magic, parachronics (specifically the study of dimensions), his impressively convoluted backstory, the morality of good and evil, folks with 'evil blood' like himself, the question of when to save someone versus when to kill them, the Church and their relation to his world, his ex-girlfriend (KSENNNNIYYYAAAA!) Willow Massacre. Being a Monster. Muddled past from cryo-amnesia and unknown passage of time. Finding out/remembering what became of her former partners (maybe left up to their respective players for each? Don' know here either). Browsing Box Things you'd like to see. Ideas you have. Share them! We can expand this into bigger headings if needed. Jenna A fight in tuxes and dresses (yes okay I do love that), more Churchy stuff. More to come. Maybe. Lao Stuff. I don't have that big a preference here, just playing is good enough. Although slowly moving what feels like the underlying plot (I guess this would be the one started by Ven before the GM cycling) forward is always good. Visiting character worlds would be fun too. But for some reason this feels like it should be done by GMs other then the character who's world we're visiting. Other then that.. stuff. Laura Genderswap, crossdressing, a musical parody, gothic survival horror, zombies. Team up with Fake & Co. sometime. Bust out of prison/escape a labyrinth or fortress. Visit characters' home worlds. Consequences of the Infinity debacle. Mike Ven Category:Players Category:Setting